On Tue, 21 Oct 2014 00:11:38 -0700, Larry Hudson <org...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On 10/20/2014 12:49 PM, Seymore4Head wrote: >> On Mon, 20 Oct 2014 20:40:18 +0100, MRAB <pyt...@mrabarnett.plus.com> >> wrote: > ><snip> > >> Do you have to know the number of items the list will have before >> making it? >> > >No, it is not necessary, lists are NOT the same as arrays in other languages. >But it IS >possible to create an initial list of a specific size: > >myList = [None] * 50 > >That creates a 50-element list with each element set to None. (BTW, the >indexes are from 0-49, >not 0-50.) I have found this occasionally useful, but I'll emphasize, it's >only RARELY useful. > The .append() method is far more versatile. > >As to your original problem: my question to you is what is your purpose? > >1) To solve this particular problem, using Python. > or >2) To explore the usage of lists, applying them to this problem. > >If your purpose is the first, then I agree with the advice you have already >been given here. >Dictionaries are a much better fit to this problem. > >If your purpose is the second, then go ahead and use this for your >exploration. But realize >that to more experienced Pythonistas this would be a very un-pythonic >approach. Even better >would be to try multiple approaches -- lists, dictionaries, lists with >dictionaries, >dictionaries with lists or tuples... And any other combinations you can come >up with. This >will give you even more experience, and allow you to evaluate the different >approaches. > >And no, I will not give you a ready-made "canned" answer. For one thing, your >description is >too vague to effectively do that. Good luck. > > -=- Larry -=- The concept I was asking about was a master list with my example of 1,2,3 as a index for the second and third items. It was suggested to make my task easier. It turns out that it didn't. Thanks for all the suggestions, though. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
